A população de Mérida e Mértola nas fontes epigráficas

This paper aims at a social evaluation of two communities, Mérida and Mértola, in the Late Antiquity, through the epigraphic evidence. Although it is always difficult to define the society through the funerary evidence, specially in Christian inscriptions, with monotonous texts. These communities share the same river, Guadiana, and the same commercial trend with the Orient. Mérida, the religious and political capital, was socially much more important than Mértola. The evidence of Bishops and noblemen in Mérida, contrasts with the elites of Mértola, presbiteri and viri honesti, not of noble rank. Yet the extraordinary wealth of Mértola confirms its economic importance.